Ghostface Killah and Raekwon - "Kilo"

January 02, 2011

One of the clear standouts from off of Fishscale, Ghostface Killah's dope sleeper album from 2006, "Kilo" is the first joint to bring Canadian beatmaker Moss (now Brooklyn-based) to my attention. Like many Canadian beatmakers, Moss is no doubt a student of the beatmaking craft. For "Kilo," he flips a snippet of background vocals to come up with the catchy hook and refrain that Ghost and Rae devote the subject matter of their rhymes to. And throughout the track, Moss runs a hypnotic low-pitched wah wah guitar break that sounds like its warped and moving around inside of an aquarium. The drumwork's steady; kick doesn't do much more than it needs to; and Moss demonstrates how 1/4 hi-hat schemes can often trump the 1/8 hi-hat patterns that typically anchor most hip hop/rap beats.

The music and video below is presented here for the purpose of scholarship.

"Sampling is piracy."
WRONG!
Piracy describes the wholesale, verbatim copying and distribution of copyrighted works. That is not sampling; that's something entirely different.Read more

"You can legally sample and use any recording up to 1, 2, 3, or 4 seconds."
WRONG!
Under existing copyright law, there is no clear, predetermined length (amount in seconds) that
is “legally” permissible to sample.Read more

"If you use samples on a free mixtape, it’s perfectly O.K."
WRONG!
A free mixtape does NOT permit you to use samples from copyrighted recordings without the permission of the copyright holders.Read more

"Sampling is easy; there’s nothing to it. Anyone can do it well."
WRONG!
Sampling is an art form that requires technical skill, imagination, and artistic understanding.Read more

"Sampling involves the use of pre-recorded songs only."
WRONG!
While the art of sampling is most commonly understood to include the use of pre-recorded songs (traditionally from vinyl records), source material for sampling includes any recorded sound or sound that can be recorded.Read more

BeatTipsEssential Listening

RIGHTS DISCLAIMER:
BeatTips.com is a website dedicated to music education, research, and scholarship. All the music (or music videos) provided on this site is (are) for the purposes of teaching, scholarship, research, and criticism only! NOTE: Under U.S. Code, Section 107 “Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use” of the Copyright Act of1976: “Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching… scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."(U.S. Code)